Branko Fučić (8 September 1920 – 30 January 1999) was a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeol ...

and

paleographer Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of historical writing systems. It encompasses the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dati ...

. He was born in Malinska-Dubašnica on the island of

Krk Krk (; ; ; ; archaic German: ''Vegl'', ; ) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. Krk is tied with Cres as the largest Adriatic island, depending o ...

. After graduating at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 1944, he received his PhD in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

in 1964. He worked in various conservation institutes and institutions at the

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under the patronage of the Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer under the name Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (, JAZU) since its ...

. He was an associate member of the

Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under the patronage of the Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer under the name Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (, JAZU) since its ...

since 1975, extraordinary member since 1983, and a full member of the

since 1991. He was actively engaged in

field research Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fi ...

of the medieval cultural and historical monuments, especially

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s and

Glagolitic The Glagolitic script ( , , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed that it was created in the 9th century for the purpose of translating liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic by Saints Cyril and Methodi ...

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

, northern Croatian Littoral and Kvarner islands. He discovered and analyzed medieval

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es in sixty locales in Istria (''Istarske freske'', 1963; ''Vincent iz Kastva'', 1992). He led archaeological excavations of the Church of St. Lucy, Jurandvor on the island of

, as well as the conservation effort of the complex St. Mary's in Osor. In his book ''Glagoljski natpisi'' (Glagolitic inscriptions, 1982) he collected paleographic and archaeological descriptions of all known Glagolitic inscriptions, more than 500 of them, which were created during the 11-13th century. He personally discovered more than half of them, mostly in Istria and Kvarner. He found and described the Roč Glagolitic abecedarium, Hum inscription, was the first to decode Valun tablet, Grdosel fragment, Supetar fragment, and contributed to the interpretation of

Baška tablet Baška tablet (, ) is one of the first monuments containing an inscription in the Croatian recension of the Church Slavonic language, dating from . On it Croatian ethnonym and king Demetrius Zvonimir are mentioned for the first time in native Cr ...

as a left

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

partition. His reconstruction of the text of the

is the most widely accepted version today. He died in

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fucic, Branko Croatian art historians Palaeographers Croatian archaeologists 1920 births 1999 deaths Herder Prize recipients Yugoslav art historians Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts 20th-century archaeologists Yugoslav archaeologists